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Amos Durham, a co-defendant in the federal corruption case against disgraced former South Carolina Sheriff Chuck Wright, is requesting two additional weeks to file objections to his pre-sentence report, citing an unresolved restitution issue.
Durham’s attorney, Frank L. Eppes, filed the motion April 22, 2026 – just two days before the objection deadline. Eppes petitioned the court to extend the deadline to May 8, 2026.
According to Eppes’ filing (.pdf), the motion is in response to the apparent completion of a long-anticipated pre-sentence report by the U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services office.
Such a report is required before any defendant can be sentenced in federal court, meaning its apparent completion marks a major milestone in one of the most consequential law enforcement corruption cases in Palmetto State history.
Despite the magnitude of the development, Eppes’ motion is yet another piecemeal glimpse into a federal sentencing process that one law enforcement officer described as moving “at a glacial pace.”
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The pre-sentence report, which Eppes stated in his filing he received on or about Good Friday (April 10, 2026), gave rise to what he described as an “issue concerning restitution” that he says his office is working to resolve with the Assistant U.S. Attorney and pretrial services.
“The government and pretrial services have been consulted and have no opposition to this requested extension of time,” Eppes wrote on behalf of Durham.
Despite the original April 24, 2026 objection deadline having since passed, no public filings indicate the court has ruled on Eppes’ motion to grant an extension.
Durham, who served as chaplain of the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) for eleven years, pleaded guilty in October 2025 to conspiracy to commit theft from programs receiving federal funds.
In doing so, Durham admitted to what federal authorities were prepared to prove at trial, that he enabled Wright to convert the sheriff’s office benevolence fund – created to support deputies in times of hardship – into a personal slush fund.
Federal authorities say the fund was exploited to the tune of $89,000 by both men.
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RELATED | CHUCK WRIGHT RETURNS TO FEDERAL COURT
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Among the examples outlined in open court hearings attended by FITSNews: Durham signed a $1,000 check that Wright subsequently used to pay an “un-indicted co-conspirator” for painkillers at the height of his now admitted crippling opioid addiction.
During that same period, Durham also allowed Wright to withdraw at least $4,000 from the benevolence fund under the guise of covering a trip to Washington D.C. to honor a murdered Spartanburg County deputy. The trip, however, had already been paid for by taxpayers.
The aforementioned abuse (and more) was first reported in detail by FITSNews in May 2025, around the same time multiple businesses claimed to have been approached by law enforcement agents in connection with Durham’s spending habits via the benevolence fund.
That same month, Durham resigned from the sheriff’s office. In an internal email leaked to FITSNews, he wrote that he was leaving “with a heavy heart.” Durham subsequently applied for employment at the neighboring Greenville County Sheriff’s Office… and was denied.
Durham has since pleaded guilty to a single federal felony carrying a statutory maximum of five years in prison. Notably, though, he faces the lightest potential sentence among the three defendants in the case.
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Wright served 21 years as one of South Carolina’s most recognizable sheriffs thanks to a nationally syndicated identity built on faith, family and drug enforcement. He faces a maximum sentence of nearly 30 years in federal prison.
Wright pleaded guilty only to what federal authorities were prepared to prove at trial – the theft of 147 prescription painkillers, the diversion of $89,000 in cash from the sheriff’s office benevolence fund and the fact he employed a “no-show deputy” (who was also his cousin) for roughly two decades.
As for that cousin, Lawson “L.B.” Watson was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and, in pleading guilty, admitted to fraudulently receiving more than $200,000 in salary while simultaneously operating a private construction business out of Reidville, S.C.
He faces a statutory maximum of 20 years in federal prison.
Now roughly six months after all three defendants pleaded guilty to a series of public corruption charges, each remain free on bond – living out their days awaiting sentencing at their respective homes in Woodruff, Wellford and Reidville.
Durham remains a preacher at Ridgeville Baptist Church in Inman, according to the church’s website, while Watson, 73, continues working in construction. Meanwhile, Wright’s alleged ties to an illegal gambling operation in Spartanburg County remain publicly unaddressed by authorities and wholly unacknowledged by mainstream media.
FITSNews has previously published firsthand accounts related to those claims and continues to pursue them.
Write to Andrew Fancher at andy@fitsnews.com.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Andrew Fancher is a Lone Star Emmy Award–winning journalist from Dallas, Texas. He joined FITSNews in 2023 after leaving an NBC affiliate, where he served as on-air talent. His reporting focuses on public corruption in South Carolina, with an emphasis on law enforcement misconduct and abuse of power.
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